Call for expression of interest to participate in “EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs” 2024

EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs is the largest food co-creation initiative in Europe. In 2019-2023, the co-creation processes involved 106 consumer panels and 55 companies from 19 European countries, who worked together to design, develop and introduce to the market 30 innovative food products.

Consumer Engagement Labs are co-creation processes involving consumers and producers, based on innovative methodology developed by University of Warsaw. Each Labs process engages a relatively coherent group of consumers, who jointly go through a multi-stage interactive process of ideation to develop proposals for new products that better address their specific needs. Unlike typical sensory panels and consumer surveys, the Labs do not involve testing of sample products but creation of innovative, yet non-existing combinations of product features and benefits. This is enabled by an interactive Labs format, creativity-stimulating techniques and opportunities to redesign food products without the need to master specialist vocabulary or possess detailed knowledge concerning ingredients or manufacturing processes.

Eligible companies need to meet the following criteria:

1. A legal person (informal organisations/unregistered startup teams are not eligible) registered in a member state of the European Union;
2. A retailer (company specialising in retail sale; NACE code G47), focused on fast-moving consumer goods or food service company (NACE I56);
3. Willing to carry out market tests of a selected new product, which is the outcome of the Labs co-creation process;
4. Able to sign a subcontracting agreement with the EIT Food Co-Location Centre and act as a subcontractor in a project funded based on Horizon Europe/EIT modalities (EIT Food partners and Rising Food Stars members are not eligible);
5. Possessing knowledge, skills, and resources needed to carry out the subcontracted tasks.

Tasks of selected organisations

The Subcontractor will be responsible for the organisation and delivery of research services related to a product co-created with the participation of consumers and the food company. Specific new products were designed with the involvement of consumers in 2021–2023 and introduced to the market by food companies in 2022–2024. The Subcontractor will deliver research services supporting the market testing of one such product. The following list of contractual tasks applies:

• Participation in a meeting with the food producer company to analyse the innovative product features and benefits, alongside available product marketing collateral;
• Providing inputs into the food producer company planning for commercial exploitation of results of the Labs by discussing possible approaches to commercialisation and successful product marketing communication;
• Carrying out the retail market testing of the product by: placing an order with the food producer for an initial batch of products, amounting to at least 10,000€ net; making the product available for consumers in a selected number of retail outlets/service points; analysing sales performance for at least 1 month; collecting insights, lessons learned and possible reactions to the product by consumers and company employees;
• Submitting “Report on the new product market testing” (providing details of 1 new product concept selected for market introduction and commercialisation plans) – detailed instructions and report templates are provided by the University of Warsaw and the report includes: data about the number of retail outlets/service points (geographical scope), number of products used in the test (confirmed by an invoice issued by the food company to the Subcontractor, amounting to at least 10,000€ net; the invoice should specify the sales value in euro and for invoices issued in local currencies other than euro, the sales value should be converted to euro based on the official exchange rate of the national bank on the day preceding the invoice issue date), data about sales performance for at least 1 month; insights, lessons learned and possible reactions to the product by consumers and company employees;
• Participation in the debriefing session with the team from University of Warsaw to discuss the project experiences and lessons learned, following the submission of the report.

Selection process

Interested and eligible organisations are invited to submit their applications
by 9 August 2024, 11 am CEST, using the attached “EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs” Application Form”.
Please send the electronic version of application, based on the attached template, to: mkielkiewicz@wz.uw.edu.pl. Incomplete applications or applications submitted by ineligible organisations will be rejected.